ANNIE OAKLEY (1935)

Annie Oakley (Barbara Stanwyck, pictured) is a backwoods gal known locally as quite a sharpshooter, and when she sees an ad for contestants to shoot against the famous Toby Walker (Preston Foster), a star of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, she goes to Cincinnati to compete. When she arrives, everyone is surprised to see a woman, as they all assumed Annie was Andy. She gives Toby a run for his money, but ultimately she's dazzled by him (her mother suggests that "he was just too pretty" to lose) and she throws the competition to let him win. However, she is noticed by talent scout Jeff Hogarth (Melvyn Douglas) who hires her to tour with the Wild West Show, basically a recreation of Old West life which features rodeo performers and a reenactment of Indian battles. Annie's skills with a gun are beyond reproach, but her showmanship needs some polish, so Toby volunteers to teach her how to present herself more appealingly. Soon, she's a hit, and both Toby and Jeff fall for her. Chief Sitting Bull is so impressed by her that he joins up with the show. One day, a crazy man with a grudge against Indians tries to shoot Sitting Bull. Toby saves him, but the gun blast goes off close to his face and his eyesight is damaged, affecting his performance. Because of his eyesight, Toby accidentally wounds Annie in the hand during a performance. People think he did it on purpose because he was jealous of her acclaim, and he is fired from the show. Toby drifts into obscurity and Annie's star rises. The movie veers into "Star is Born" territory here, but this ending is happier, if a bit far-fetched.

As in many of my reviews of historical and biographical movies, I must admit I know little about Oakley except that she was married to sharpshooter Frank Butler and both were part of the Buffalo Bill show. Most of the rest of the narrative here is fictional, and even though it's not real, it is compelling enough. Stanwyck plays Oakley as innocent but not stupid and though she doesn't get much chance to really shine acting-wise, she holds the viewer's attention well. Foster is handsome but a bit wooden as Toby; Douglas is more effective as the third point of the romantic triangle, to the point where you start to root for him to get Annie. Pert Kelton has a nice turn as Toby's hotsy-totsy ex (imagine a slightly tamped-down Mae West). A Native American actor who went by Chief Thunderbird is fine as Sitting Bull. At some point, someone uses the phrase, "Well, dog my cats!" which I learned as a youngster and still use when appropriate--and, well, it’s always appropriate. [TCM]